Sonia, PM cheating people on lokpal bill: Anna Hazare

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare said on Tuesday that assurances like the ones offered by Sonia Gandhi, that lokpal bill would be passed in the budget session of Parliament, were being made for the past two years and said intentions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress President on it were 'not clear'.

"Such letters and assurances (like the one by Sonia Gandhi) are coming for the past two years. Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier too written such letters to me promising to pass the lokpal bill," Hazare told reporters in Patna.

"(Their) intention is not clear ... They have been cheating people time and again ... If they had been honest, one or at best two parliamentary sessions would have been sufficient to do it (pass the lokpal bill)," he said.

Asked if he had any expectation from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the bill, he said "Everybody is the same. All of them are cheating people."

Sonia Gandhi had written a letter to Hazare recently and send it to his Rale Sidhi village home assuring him that the lokpal bill, which he is struggling for, would be passed in the coming budget session of Parliament.

The letter was sent days before Hazare launches his fresh campaign from Patna which kicks off on Wednesday.

Hazare, who was accompanied by retired army chief VK Singh, said he would launch a nation-wide 'movement for 'changing the system to fulfil the 'dreams of Mahatama Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan'.

He is scheduled to launch a country-wide Vyawastha Parivartan (change in system) programme and address a Jantranta rally in Patna on Wednesday.